Many-Particle Quantum Dynamics in Atomic and Molecular Fragmentation

This book aims to give a comprehensive view on the present status of a tremendously fast-developing field - the quantum dynamics of fragmenting many-particle Coulomb systems. In striking contrast to the profound theo­ retical knowledge, achieved from extremely precise experimental results on the static atomic and molecular structure, it was only three years ago when the three-body fundamental dynamical problem of breaking up the hydro­ gen atom by electron impact was claimed to be solved in a mathematically consistent way. Until now, more "complicated", though still fundamental scenarios, ad­ dressing the complete fragmentation of the "simplest" many-electron system, the helium atom, under the action of a time-dependent external force, have withstood any consistent theoretical description. Exceptions are the most "trivial" situations where the breakup is induced by the impact of a single real photon or of a virtual photon under a perturbation caused by fast, low­ charged particle impact. Similarly, the dissociation of the "simplest" molecu­ lar systems like Ht or HD+, fragmentating in collisions with slow electrons, or the H3 molecule breaking apart into two or three" pieces" as a result of a single laser-photon excitation, establish a major challenge for state-of-the-art theoretical approaches.

1 Kinematics of Atomic and Molecular Fragmentation Reactions.- 2 Recoil-Ion Momentum Spectroscopy and “Reaction Microscopes”.- 3 Multiparticle Imaging of Fast Molecular Ion Beams.- 4 Neutral—Atom Imaging Techniques.- 5 Collisional Breakup in Coulomb Systems.- 6 Hyperspherical R-Matrix with Semiclassical Outgoing Waves.- 7 Convergent Close-Coupling Approach to Electron—Atom Collisions.- 8 Close-Coupling Approach to Multiple—Atomic Ionization.- 9 Numerical Grid Methods.- 10 S-Matrix Approach to Intense—Field Processes in Many-Electron Systems.- 11 Quantum Orbits and Laser-Induced Nonsequential Double Ionization.- 12 Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory in Atomic Collisions.- 13 Electronic Collisions in Correlated Systems: From the Atomic to the Thermodynamic Limit.- 14 From Atoms to Molecules.- 15 Vector Correlations in Dissociative Photoionization of Simple Molecules Induced by Polarized Light.- 16 Relaxation Dynamics of Core Excited Molecules Probed by Auger-Electron—Ion Coincidences.- 17 Laser-Induced Fragmentation of Triatomic Hydrogen.- 18 Nonsequential Multiple Ionization in Strong Laser Fields.- 19 Helium Double Ionization in Collisions with Electrons.- 20 Fast p—He Transfer Ionization Processes: A Window to Reveal the Non-s2 Contributions in the Momentum Wave Function of Ground—State He.- 21 Single and Multiple Ionization in Strong Ion-Induced Fields.- 22 Coulomb-Explosion Imaging Studies of Molecular Relaxation and Rearrangement.- 23 Charged-Particle-Induced Molecular Fragmentation at Large Velocities.- 24 Electron—Interaction Effects in Ion-Induced Rearrangement and Ionization Dynamics: A Theoretical Perspective.- 25 Ionization Dynamics in Atomic Collisions.- 26 Fragment—Imaging Studies of Dissociative Recombination.